Ww O R L D Around the World with
O U rT L O O K Johnson in Five Days
Vol.6, No.1 January 12, 1968
More Ab
50¢
MORE ABOUT CHE GUEVARA
Further details concerning the murder of Ernesto Che Guevara at the hands of the Barrientos military dictatorship in Bolivia were made public by the French weekly magazine Paris-Match in its December 30 issue. The information was obtained by Michéle Ray during a stay of six weeks in La Paz and the zone where the guerrillas were active.
Guevara was captured on October 8. His gun had been put out of commission by a bullet and he had been wounded. Willy, one of Che's comrades, attempted to carry the wounded leader on his back. According to the Bolivian army account, Willy put Che down and started firing. He was killed in the answering fire. This version turns out to be untrue. Four soldiers surprised the two guerrillas, and Willy did not have time to put Guevara down and get his gun. Both men were captured alive.
Supported by two soldiers, Guevara was marched into the tiny village of La Higuera. He had his knapsack but not the bag containing his documents. This he had managed to hide in the brush where it was found two days later.
In La Higuera, the two prisoners were placed in the two-room schoolhouse, Guevara in the larger room, seated on a bench, his hands tied. One of the soldiers lit his pipe for him and he was left alone in the dark and the icy chill of the 8,000-foot altitude, his wound unattended.
In the morning, top officials began arriving by helicopter from La Paz. Outside the school, soldiers disputed over the contents of Guevara's knapsack.
Sublieutenant Perez wrenched open the door and held up a pair of cuff links. "Are these yours?"
"Yes, and I want them sent to my son." Perez left without replying.
Espinosa, another officer, wanted a pipe. But the one in the knapsack had already been taken. He came into the roon, took Che by the hair, shook him, and tore the pipe he was smoking from his mouth.
"Ah! So you're the famous Che Guevara!"
"Yes, I am Che! Minister, too! You are not going to treat me like that!" And with his good foot and an abrupt twist, he kicked Espinosa against a school bench.
A male nurse, Fernando Sanco, was finally brought in to attend to Guevara. "A bad wound in the leg...but that was
all. I washed it with water and a disin-~
fectant."
Colonel Selich from La Paz sought
to interrogate the prisoner, but in vain.
He decided to reinforce the guard.
During the morning of October 9,
Che appeared to want to talk to someone.
He asked for the village schoolteacher.
The 22-year-old Julia Cortez tells
the story as follows:
"I was afraid to go, afraid of
finding a brute..-And here was a man of
attractive appearance, with a look that
was soft and mocking at the same time...
It was impossible for me to meet the
glance of his eyes."
"Ahn! You are the 'schoolteacher'!
Don't you know that you shouldn't put an
accent on the 'se' of ‘ya se leer'?" he
said by way of preamble and pointing to
one of the outlines on the board.
He was gently ribbing the school-
teacher and his eyes were laughing.
"You know, in Cuba, there are no
schools like this. You could call it a
hut. How can the children of the campe-
sinos study...It's antipedagogical!"
"Our country. is poor."
"But the rulers and the military
chiefs drive Mercedes and have a lot of
other things...Verdad! That's why we are
fighting."
"You came from very far away to
fight in Bolivia."
"I am a revolutionary and I have
been in many places."
"You came to murder our soldiers."
"You know, in war you lose and you
win."
Julia Cortez reported the incident
to Jorge Torrico, a Bolivian journalist.
She told him, "I kept my eyes down talk-
ing to him...His gaze was insupportable,
piercing...and so tranquil."
Around noon, Che sent for her
again. He knew that he had but a short
time to live. Certainly less than an hour.
But she refused. "I don't know why.
I regret it now. Maybe it was because of
his eyes, his gaze..."
Among those who came by helicopter,
according to Anibal Quiroga, the mayor,
were General Ovando, General Lafuente, Colonel Zenteno, Admiral Hugarteche, "and also an agent of the C.I.A., Gonzalez."
The admiral, upon landing in the helicopter, distributed money to each of the "Rangers."
All the officials came into the schoolhouse to stare at Guevara.
They got nothing from him in response to their questions except a scornful look. Seated on a bench, his hands tied, his back to the wall, he defied then.
Just the same, they tried to get him to talk. Admiral Hugarteche came up close. The admiral jumped back as if stung, his cheeks turning red. Che had spit in his face.
A little before 12:30, the high government officials left. Their orders were specific.
Another guerrilla, Benjamin, nick-— named "El Maestro" had been captured. He had been found by the Rangers, completely prostrated by the capture of Guevara. He did not even try to flee. He was put in the other room with Willy.
At one o'clock Che stood up. He had heard voices outside. An argument.
"I want to go in, too."
"I'm going in first."
"You take Willy and 'El Maestro.'"
The door opened and Mario Teran, a noncommissioned office, came in, carrying an M2 on his hip.
"Sit down," he said.
. "Why? You're going to kill me," Che said calmly.
"No. Sit down."
Looking down, avoiding the eyes of his prisoner, Teran acted like he was going to leave. Suddenly, a burst from his gun. Che crumpled. Behind him, on the wall, the bullets made two holes the size of fists, stained with blood.
Perez, a revolver in his hand, came in as Che lay dying. He finished the man on the floor with a bullet in the throat. Two or three others followed Perez. All of them wanted to take a shot at the body. "All right," said the officer, "but not above the waist." They shot at his legs.
It was now the turn of Willy and "El Maestro." When the door opened, they knew what was in store.
Sergeant Huanca, a gun in his hands, faced the two men, both of them tied up and seated on the floor.
"You've killed him," said Willy. "I don't care about dying; I'll die with hin."
A burst of fire and Willy and "El Maestro” fell over. On the wall, around the holes made by the bullets, there was blood.
Julia Cortez, in her home fifty yards away, heard the shots. She hurried to the schoolhouse. The man whose gaze she had not been able to endure, lay ina pool of blood. Tears came to her eyes.
"From all sides the peasants came, mingling with the soldiers who went to look for stretchers to lay the bodies on," Michéle Ray reports. "There was great agitation. Those who had seen, those who knew what had happened, ex- Plained to those who were arriving. Within ten minutes everybody knew about it. This is the reason why, two months later, the outside world is still 'barred' from the village."
An officer opened Che's clothing and counted the wounds. There were five on his legs, one on the left side of his chest, one in his throat, one on the right shoulder, one on the right arn. Nine wounds and not seven as the doctors at Vallegrande said.
At three o'clock, when the stretchers were waiting at the side of the helicopters, the Dominican father, Roger Schiller, arrived by horseback. Later he explained that he had heard about Che's capture early in the morning but he could not reach the village in time.
"I went to the school," he said. "It had to be cleaned. I found a bullet on the floor. Take a look at it. It's battered. I'm keeping it as a souvenir. Blood was running on the floor. In the classroom where Willy and El Maestro were, there was blood everywhere."
The Dominican father said that he learned that a woman had come out, looking for some water to wash Che's face, and she had said, "How beautiful he is; the way Christ looked!"
The officers in charge were concerned about other aspects of the martyrdom of Che Guevara. The soldier who had taken a roll of pictures of Che after he was seized and while being marched toward La Higuera was made to burn the entire roll of film while everybody watched hin.